The tales depicted in the ex­votos

Non potes miserias scire et non subvenire

Thou canst not know of our needs and not come to our rescue

From the inscription on ex­voto 18

Ex­votos, paintings of the exceptional in everyday life

The painted ex­votos are an intimate and generous way of living religiosity and one\’sown thanksgiving for an event in life deemed miraculous. A close iconographic study of the ex­votos from the Sanctuary of the Holy Virgin of Succour reveals a cross­section of life among people who have looked at everyday life and personal histories, throughout past centuries, as being part of a providential plan. From illness to healing, from shipwrecks to horse­riding accidents, the little stories of merchants and travellers who have escaped natural dangers blend into the greater history, leaving traces of the international relations (regarding trade in particular) that people from Lake Como have held throughout the centuries.

"Reading" the ex­votos
4 thematic paths towards a visual and narrative reading of the ex­-votos

between the ordinary and the extraordinary

Each of the paintings, whatever the miracle for which the thanksgiving is being offered, binds the daily course of events to the divine providence.

the thread of the tale

In a very small space the painter gives many informations, so that the onlooker may retrace all the subsequent passages of the event.

The Journeey's landscape

Most of the paintings tell a story of perils escaped during a journey.The landscape is an important part of the tale.

Hope-Promise-Give Thanks

In the moment of peril all the protagonists of these little­big stories cry their hope out loud, their desire to do good, their firm belief that the Divine Providence will not fail to come to the rescue.

Crediti

An initiative by Capuchin Friars Minor Sanctuary of the Holy Virgin of Succour in Ossuccio and by CREA ((Research Centre for Education through Art and mediation of the cultural heritage throughout the land and in museums) of dell’UCSC ‐ Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ‐ Milano

Scientific Project

Cecilia De Carli

Exhibition curated by

Cecilia De CarliGrazia Massone

Restoration of the works

Martino Mascherpa

Coordination

Emanuela Biscotti

Organization secretary

Erica Fraschini

With a special and deeply felt thank you to:

Dott. Bonini, Isola comacina Don Andrea Straffi, Responsible for the Catalogue of the goods of the Diocese Mons. Guido Calvi President of the Diocese's Commission of Sacred Art Daniele Pescarmona, Director of the Superintendence for Hisorical, Artistic, and Ethno‐anthropological
Heritage of Lombardia RegionThe editor Attilio Sampietro for the kind concession of the use of images of the ex votos n. 13, 15, and 67. Ed. Attilio Sampietro Editore, Menaggio